Carlos Alcaraz is not done with his 2023 season yet. The Spaniard could be taking on Italian star, Jannik Sinner in an exhibition match in Spain on the Friday before Christmas 2023. The news comes after Alcaraz confirming another exhibition match, with 22-time Grand Slam champion, Rafael Nadal in Las Vegas in March 2024.
According to Tennis Italiano, Jannik Sinner is set to begin his 2024 season at the Kooyong Classic in Australia, which is another exhibition-like competition in the singles category. This will be in Melbourne as a precursor to the Australian Open 2024. However, prior to that, he will end his 2023 season by taking on Carlos Alcaraz in Villena, which is 50 kms away from Alicante. Villena is renowned for having the academy of Alcaraz’s coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner share a rather good bond off the court, despite being extremely competitive on it. On head-to-head, Sinner leads 4-3. This is the rivalry which is expected to take men’s tennis forward once Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal quit the professional game for good. It is fair to say that Carlos Alcaraz continues to have the edge over Jannik Sinner, having already won 2 Grand Slams at the age of 20.
However, Jannik Sinner made impressive strides in 2023 by winning 4 titles as well as the Davis Cup for Italy for the first time in 47 years. His achievements did not go unnoticed as Sinner recently won two major honours – The ATP Fan Favorite Award and the Most Improved Player of the Year award. Sinner’s coaching team, led by Australian tennis veteran, Darren Cahill, won the ATP Coach of the Year award as well.
Many believe that Jannik Sinner has the upper hand over Carlos Alcaraz, going into the 2024 season, having form on his side. Alcaraz struggled largely in the second half of the 2023 season, despite making it to the semifinals of the US Open 2023 and the ATP Finals 2023. But Sinner beat many top 10 players consistently (some also for the first time) and one of them was Alcaraz.
Carlos Alcaraz has 3-4 exhibition matches in the pipeline
Carlos Alcaraz seems to be following in the footsteps of Rafael Nadal, in terms of being more open to playing exhibition, non-ATP matches. Firstly, he is set to play Sinner on home soil. Followed by that, he is set to travel to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to play potentially two exhibition matches, one of them being against World No.1, Novak Djokovic.
After that, Carlos Alcaraz will play Rafael Nadal in a dream Spanish battle in Las Vegas in the Netflix Slam on March 3, 2024. While this is the age for Alcaraz to participate in as many events, it does raise questions. It remains to be seen whether Alcaraz keeps up with his fitness, since that is the part of his game that has been criticised especially in recent times, seeing his form. The Spaniard infamously sat out of his country’s Davis Cup 2023 Round of 16 clash in Malaga against Serbia and they were knocked out embarrassingly. This courted some negative comments from his own countrymen such as David Ferrer.
